Public museums collections had a hard start in Carinthia: only in 1848 did the first Museum of Natural Sciences open, maintained by the ‘Naturhistorischer Verein für Kärnten’. For a long time the collections were based on private donations. In 1884, the ‘Naturhistorischer Verein’ and the ‘Geschichtsverein für Kärnten’ moved into a new museum building, since 1898 there have been full-time curators. The museum’s scientific publication was and still is the periodical Carinthia. In 1942, the collections became property of the Government, but since 1998 they have been privatized.